Abstract
We start by reviewing the relevant literature on World Englishes which proposed any form of English for international communication, considering it as the contact language with the broader level of meaning of all speakers irrespective of their English language acquisition history. Based on that input we first bring evidence of the cultural aspect of language acquisition. To this respect we define culture as language dependent and therefore mirroring the specialized, individual aspect of communication. This means that students need English for special purposes and they use the language as the social and cultural environment requires. In this context we try to see what would be the “getting through” strategies to meet native speaker acceptance and international communication. The second aspect we need to deal with is teacher’s approach to teaching language. This kind of approach has to be two folded as the teacher has his own history of language acquisition which he/she has to double by developing language insight which should help in choosing the most efficient and adequate teaching strategies. Culturally and linguistically the teacher is a mediator and he is also an assessor of what is to be expected as (International) Standard English (ISE). We still consider debatable the issue of ISE as it is difficult to decide what the standard should be and how to make it globally acknowledged; even so the teacher has to define, based on purpose and the expected cultural environment, what is the standard to be achieved, the paper presenting such an attempt.
Author Information
Amelia Molea, Military Technical Academy of Bucharest, Romania
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress